Gartner for Finance

Ignition Guide to
Building a Finance
Technology Roadmap

1 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Introduction
Finance leaders trying to set a clear digital transformation vision should use this five-step
guide to identify best-fit technologies, prioritize technology upgrade and/or investment
opportunities, create a roadmap for technology implementation, and communicate it to
relevant business stakeholders.

More on This Topic

This is part of an in-depth collection of research. See the collection:

Digital Technology Use The CFO’s Guide to Top 4 Data & Analytics
Cases in Finance Digital Strategy Trends in Finance

2 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Overview
This guide will help you:

Identify gaps in Identify emerging Define finance

finance’s current technologies that can technology investment
technology portfolio. help realize finance’s opportunities.
objectives.

Prioritize finance Visualize and

technology investment communicate the finance
opportunities. technology roadmap.

Time Effort Inputs

8-12 weeks 1-3 FTEs • Finance’s strategic objectives
• Data on finance’s current
technology use

*Time refers to the total duration for completing the activity end-to-end.

**Effort refers to the total number of FTEs required to execute the activity.

ESSENTIAL Steps marked as Essential have been identified as critical for the successful execution of this project.

Steps
Phase Plan Build Monitor

Phase Steps 1. P
 repare to build the 2. Identify finance’s 5. M
 onitor progress
finance technology technology against the finance
roadmap. opportunities. technology
roadmap.
3. S
 elect technologies
for investment.
4. C
 reate and
communicate the
finance technology
roadmap.

3 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Step 1 2 3 4 5

Prepare to Build the

Finance Technology
Roadmap
Lay the groundwork for creating the finance technology roadmap, and ensure all
participants understand their responsibilities, process timelines and expected outcomes.

Project Objectives
Project Outcomes Problems Addressed

A clear understanding of the functionality and Finance teams struggle to assess the quality
quality of currently deployed systems, and the of their existing systems and the value of
market technology landscape to support key new technologies in a comparable and
finance activities. comprehensive manner.

An assessment of value and risk drivers to Finance teams find it hard to evaluate and
prioritize technology opportunities that enhance prioritize technology opportunities based on
key finance activities. their net business value.

A technology roadmap for finance with Finance teams find it hard to identify a proven
well-defined technology opportunities and framework and thorough methodology to build
implementation timelines. a technology roadmap.

Get Started: Ignition Project Manager (.xlsm) (Available to Gartner clients)

4 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Step 1 2 3 4 5

Roles and Responsibilities

Role Responsibilities

Head of Finance Provide executive guidance on the roadmap

development and ensure it aligns with strategic
(e.g., CFO, VP of finance)
goals. Appoint finance technology lead and sign
off action items, timelines, deliverables
and responsibilities.

Finance Technology Lead Responsible for building the roadmap, leading

the PMO effort by monitoring and tracking
(Often head of finance operations, head of
progress, assigning responsibilities for
finance transformation or head of shared services)
implementation, and evaluating the cost of
technology to ensure the implementation
remains on budget.

Finance Process Owners Review finance objectives and provide inputs

on process-level technology requirements for
(Often midlevel finance managers or functional
supporting finance capabilities.
team leads)

Finance Technology Roadmap “Tiger Team” Gather data on current systems deployed to
support finance capabilities and evaluate new
(Typically comprises finance capability owners
technologies for investment.
and cross-functional representation from central
IT and procurement teams)

IT Business Partners Provide consultative support on auditing current

technologies and future technology investments

Before You Start

• Understand how finance’s objectives align with your enterprise’s strategic objectives.
• Set up a finance technology roadmap tiger team to drive this effort. The team should
include relevant stakeholders from the finance, IT and procurement teams.
• Create an inventory of current technologies/systems that support various finance
activities in your organization.

5 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Step 1 2 3 4 5
Common Pitfalls and Keys to Success
Common Pitfalls
Focus on Short-Term Gains
Investing in low-effort, low-complexity technology
solutions (such as piecemeal automations) to
shorten payback periods. This is often at the
expense of opportunities (such as setting up an
RPA CoE) that can yield long-term business value.
Selection of Technologies Based on Hype and
Market Trends
Investing in new technologies that seem to offer
quick efficiency gains, risking misalignment of
technology investment strategy with finance
objectives and diminishing the utility and
effectiveness of these investments.
Identify Technology Opportunities in Silos
Limited visibility into the organization’s other
IT efforts, leading to overlaps and conflicts
among different finance teams or with central IT.
This creates confusion and leads to a disjointed
finance technology roadmap.
6 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Keys to Success
Delineate Value-Adding Technology Investments
Assess the value and risk drivers associated with
technology opportunities to prioritize them on the
basis of net business value. Ensure an optimum
balance of short- and long-term initiatives in the
roadmap.
Select Technologies Based on Finance’s Needs
Carefully review finance activities and understand
how they align with strategic business objectives.
Evaluate and determine their relative importance
to select and prioritize the right technologies
for investment.
Involve Cross-Functional Stakeholders Early
Consult, collaborate and coordinate with the other
finance teams and central IT team to understand
their perspectives at each step of the roadmap
process. This also facilitates buy-in for technology
selection at a later stage.
Step 1 2 3 4 5

Identify Finance’s
Technology Opportunities
Evaluate the quality and functionality of current systems supporting key finance
activities to identify gaps in the technology portfolio. Based on this assessment,
identify key technology opportunities that are prospective candidates for the
finance technology roadmap.

Tasks
2.1 Determine gaps in finance’s current technology portfolio. ESSENTIAL

Assess the effectiveness of current technologies and/or deployed systems supporting

key finance activities. Leverage the finance technology roadmap tiger team, including IT
partners, for this task.
Get Started: Finance Technology Assessment Tool (.xlsm) (Available to Gartner clients)
2.2 Assess the market landscape to identify potential upgrades and investments.
Scan the finance technology landscape to identify existing and emerging technologies
that will help build new finance workflows and strengthen existing ones. Leverage Gartner
research (see Table 1) and IT partners’ expertise for this task.

Table 1. Key Gartner Research on Finance Technologies

Category Description Key Research

Core finance Technologies related to the functional
areas of general ledger, accounts
payable, accounts receivable, fixed
assets, project accounting, project
costing and project billing
• Forget What You Know and Start
Fresh When Implementing Cloud
Core Financial Management Suites
• How to Develop and Jump-Start Your
AI Strategy for Core Finance

Financial close Technologies related to financial
consolidation, financial reporting,
reconciliation management, close
management, intercompany
transactions and disclosure
management
• Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial
Close Solutions
• Critical Capabilities for Cloud
Financial Close Solutions

Continued to next page

7 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Step 1 2 3 4 5

Table 1. Key Gartner Research on Finance Technologies

Category Description Key Research

Financial planning Technologies related to financial
and analysis budgeting and planning, integrated
financial planning, financial forecasting
and modeling, and management and
performance reporting
• Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial
Planning and Analysis Solutions
• Critical Capabilities for Cloud
Financial Planning and Analysis
Solutions
• Innovation Insight for Extended
Planning and Analysis (xP&A)

Finance Technologies related to using robotic • Move Beyond RPA to Hyperautomate

automation process automation (RPA) and scaling Finance
it into other finance subfunctions, such • Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process
as procurement and tax Automation
• RPA Use Cases in Tax
• Finance Hyperautomation Use Cases

Data and analytics Technologies related to data and • Advanced Analytics Use Case
analytics Library

Latest trends Upcoming trends in finance technology • Top 10 Finance Technology Trends
for 2020

Source: Gartner

2.3 Define technology opportunities for finance. ESSENTIAL

Based on the gaps identified in current finance technologies (Task 2.1) and the finance
technology market landscape (Task 2.2), define a comprehensive list of technology
opportunities (see Figure 1). CFOs, midlevel managers and process owners are expected
to act as key participants in this process.

8 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Step 1 2 3 4 5

Figure 1. Defining Finance Technology Opportunities

Identify causes for Discuss options for

List all potential finance
Actions functionality & quality gaps technology investment
technology opportunities
in current technologies or upgrade

Identify technologies that

need upgrading from the Identify desirable finance
Create a finite list of finance
Inputs/ assessment in Task 2.1. Focus technologies or use-cases
technology opportunities for
Outputs on technologies classified as using Gartner’s latest research
prioritization (Task 3.1)
“requires significant upgrade” from Task 2.2.
or “major weakness.”

Illustrative: Defining Finance Technology Opportunities for Financial Planning Activity

Technologies in place that New finance technologies List of potential finance tech.
need upgrading: in the market: opportunities:
• SAP (requires significant • IBM Finance Analytics • Upgrade to SAP Cloud for
upgrade) • SAP Advanced AI-powered analytics
Example • MS Excel (major Integrated Analytics • Use IBM Finance Planning and
weakness) • Microsoft PowerBI Analysis Tool for AI-driven what-
• Tableau if scenario planning and testing
to accelerate forecasting
• Use Tableau or PowerBI
to automate reporting and
improve operational efficiencies

Source: Gartner

2.4 Discuss finance technology opportunities for alignment with central IT. ESSENTIAL

Collaborate with IT business partners to screen technology opportunities based on their

potential impact on IT’s ability to deliver services and advance its strategic goals.
Get Started: Discussion Guide: IT Alignment of Finance Technology Opportunities (.pptx)
(Available to Gartner clients)

How to Set Up for Success

Success Criteria Red Flags

A list of well-defined key finance activities to Dissent in the finance team due to various factors
be supported by technology. (such as hesitation, lack of interest, rigid mentality,
or fear of losing their job) leads to inadequate
identification of technology needs.

A comprehensive analysis of the finance Cross-functional stakeholders (such as central IT)

technologies prevalent in the market and are not involved in analyzing the current systems
a thorough understanding of finance and identifying new finance technologies.
technology use cases.

9 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Step 1 2 3 4 5

Select Technologies
for Investment
Evaluate finance technology opportunities to identify and prioritize the best-fit
technology opportunities for your organization.

Tasks
3.1 Prioritize finance technology opportunities. ESSENTIAL

Evaluate and prioritize finance technology opportunities (defined in Task 2.3 and 2.4)
against a finite, standardized set of value criteria, success factors, risks and inhibitors
to get an objective comparison of their net business value.
Get Started: Finance Technology Opportunity Prioritization Tool (.xlsm)
(Available to Gartner clients)
3.2 Discuss technology opportunities with a Gartner analyst.
Leverage our Gartner BuySmartTM service to validate your prioritized list of finance
technology opportunities against external market parameters (e.g., technical,
financial) and industry best practices.1

How to Set Up for Success

Success Criteria Red Flags

An objective assessment of technologies that will All finance objectives are ranked high on business
advance the finance function’s critical objectives. value making it hard to prioritize corresponding
technology opportunities.

Identification of technologies that no longer serve Finance technology opportunities conflict or

the critical objectives and should be upgraded, overlap with central IT’s ongoing projects.
replaced or retired.

1
BuySmart is Gartner’s trademarked approach for using data-driven insights and situational analysis to
acquire (buy or rent) technology solutions across all categories of spend (software, SaaS, cloud, infrastructure,
services, devices, network).

The BuySmart approach is “applied” research. It’s a pragmatic approach that combines enterprise-specific
situations with our deep research base, across technology markets, to enable clients to buy with confidence.
The BuySmart approach guides clients through the strategy, vendor selection and negotiation phases of a
deal. BuySmart is designed to ensure we’ve addressed the five R’s of a deal profile: the right requirements, right
vendor, right structure, right quantity at the right price.

10 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Step 1 2 3 4 5

Create and Communicate

the Finance Technology
Roadmap
Determine the final roadmap elements (from the previous steps) and the timelines for
execution. Document and share the roadmap with relevant stakeholder groups.

Tasks
4.1 Define the roadmap for finance technology implementation.
Define the timelines for implementing selected technologies according to your business
needs and readiness. Assign stakeholders (individuals or teams) responsible for their
successful implementation and graphically illustrate the timelines for stakeholders.

Novel approaches to visualizing roadmaps include moving away from the traditional
Gantt-like feel to methods such as following a path, and even visualizations that
simulate traveling down a physical road.

4.2 Document and communicate the finance technology roadmap.

Document key components of the technology roadmap from the previous steps. Share
the finalized roadmap with internal stakeholders. Tailor your communication according
to the information needs of different stakeholders, such as IT and procurement.
Get Started: Finance Technology Roadmap Template (.pptx)
(Available to Gartner clients)

How to Set Up for Success

Success Criteria Red Flags

A clear representation of the key elements of the Too many technologies scheduled for
finance technology roadmap, including execution implementation at the same time leads to
timelines. challenges in adoption and implementation.

A shared understanding of the roadmap by the Stakeholders are unclear on the business
finance function, IT team and other relevant assumptions underlying the strategy.
business partners.

11 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Step 1 2 3 4 5

Monitor Progress Against

the Finance Technology
Roadmap
Review the progress and effectiveness of the roadmap, and track uptake and action.

Review Your Performance

• Track adherence to the roadmap and collect feedback from key stakeholders on the
technology roadmapping process.
• Document the lessons learned for future roadmapping exercises.

Keys to Continued Success

Key Description

Track Emerging Finance Leverage Gartner’s expertise to regularly monitor the finance technology
Technologies landscape and stay on top of new technology launches, trends and
industry reviews.

Identify Opportunities Periodically assess finance’s systems on their business criticality and ease
to Retire Low-Value of use to identify redundant and overly complex functionality.
Systems

Periodically Refresh the Follow an annual cadence to refresh the roadmap with new technology
Roadmap opportunities to ensure its relevance to changing business needs.

Align Human Capital Understand how finance technology implementation will cause staff roles
With Key Projects to change. Determine which new roles will be required and which existing
roles will change to meet future objectives.

12 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Actionable, objective insight
Position your finance function for success. Explore these
additional complimentary resources and tools:

Research Research
Digital Technology Use Cases Digital Finance Transformation
in Finance via AI-Enabled Outsourcing
Discover six must-have digital finance Transform your finance operations with
capabilities. AI solutions.

Download Research Download Research

Webinars How We Help

Join an Expert Deep Dive Gartner for Finance
Hear the latest insights from Gartner Get support for achieving your critical
finance experts. finance priorities.

Watch Now Learn More

Already a client?
Get access to even more resources in your client portal. Log In

13 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719
Connect With Us
Get actionable, objective insight to deliver on your mission-critical
priorities. Our expert guidance and tools enable faster, smarter
decisions and stronger performance. Contact us to become a client:

U.S.: 1 855 811 7593

International: +44 (0) 3330 607 044

Become a Client

Learn more about Gartner for Finance

gartner.com/en/finance

Stay connected to the latest insights

© 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719

14 © 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1821719